


Mechanical

by Sylv



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-03
Updated: 2012-12-03
Packaged: 2017-11-20 04:56:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/581520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylv/pseuds/Sylv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Terra is a spontaneous being; a creature of impulse. The others aren't, and that freaks her out a little bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mechanical

There was something about them that was unsettling, she decided finally, sitting at the counter eating ice cream one day, and watching the rest of the team shrewdly, through sky blue eyes. As she picked out the nut toppings and ate them separately, letting the main portion of the dish melt in the bowl, she observed what they did with an interest that she didn't know she possessed. They had always been interesting to her, as heroes such as she, but well known and doing good without causing destruction at the same time. A few times she had thought, 'I could do that, couldn't I?' but it had been a mere dream, a wish that wasn't ever going to come true.

And one day she was in their territory. It had just happened, and she had shown them what she could do with the earth without them needing to save her. That just happened as well. They were warm and welcoming and accepting, and all of a sudden she was part of their team. The Teen Titans. She was a Teen Titan. It was too much to bear, and more that she could have ever hoped for all at the same time. It was wonderful.

But now, as Terra looked at them through her cornflower yellow hair that refused to stay behind her ears, she realized that there was so much more to them than their images, their immovable hero statuses. They were real kids, and they had their problems too. She wasn't the only one out of them who had issues that needed to be fixed. Raven was moody, Robin was obsessive compulsive about all the clocks being the exact same time in the tower, Starfire had a rather nasty habit of leaving her Tamaranian thorns which she used as feet massagers on the floor and Beast Boy couldn't seem to see her without freaking out. Which was odd in its own right.

That wasn't all though. Besides the fact that they all had some habits that needed to be kicked or they would eventually drive each other completely insane, they didn't seem to be normal people. Well, duh, Terra told herself, grimacing immediately after thinking that. Of  _course_ they aren't normal people!

However, she hadn't meant it like that. They weren't spontaneous. They never… acted on a whim. They always thought things out, always were the same no matter what sort of situation they were in. And although they seemed to be able to  _adapt_  when need be, they never seemed to change. It made her want to fidget when she thought about it. Terra tried to never do the same thing more than once. It was part of the reason that she always moved around before joining the Titans. She didn't want to get the fame and the renown, and she didn't want to stay there and defeat the same villain twice. After she had done it once, let someone else deal with it. There were more things out there, different things for her to try and pursue. She didn't need to do something so much that it became boring.

Nine in the morning, breakfast. Eleven every day except Thursdays (which were apparently some sort of special meditation day for Raven) and Saturdays, which the team had convinced Robin would be a day to relax, was training outside in the course and inside in the gym. One in the afternoon, it was lunch, where they inhaled food like it was going out of style. The afternoon normally had some attack or other, but when it didn't they had their routines; Robin shut himself up with work. Starfire's routine was… to not have a routine? She liked to hang out with her friends, and Silkie. But that was predictable. Food and video games. It was like… clockwork. That's what they were like. Clockwork. On the hour every hour.

Her new friends, they didn't seem to mind the familiarity. They liked knowing what was coming; it made them feel comfortable and safe. It made Terra feel trapped and too small for the space she was in, hoping to smash her fists against one of the walls and break out, smell the fresh air, see the blue sky, know that something  _un_ known was just around the bend. It would be wonderful, brilliant, lovely. But she couldn't open that box, and her fists were now bleeding from the effort.

Every morning was the same. When she got there, Robin and Raven were already up, doing their own thing in their own corners. The others would come stumbling in sometime later, and a predictable fight would ensue over what breakfast to make, but Beast Boy would always be the one to start it. Starfire gave everyone hugs and gushed about how 'glorious' and 'magnificent' the day would most certainly be. And Terra? Well, one day she came in wearing no PJ bottoms and a very long sleep shirt. Another time she didn't come to breakfast at all, but woke up at two in the afternoon and gorged herself on Starfire's pudding. And yet another time she stayed up all night, and was found staring with wide eyes at a spot on the wall when Robin came down the next morning.

She wasn't the only one, though, it seemed. One of them, he didn't have a set of things 'to do' as the other seemed to, every day. Or, if he did, he changed them daily, because she saw him never trying to do the same thing twice as well. He liked to do things with all members of the team, and he made time for himself as well. It was, all in all, extremely different from the rest, and Terra found herself watching him the most.

Cyborg was too interesting  _not_ to watch. At first, before she had really settled in, she had tended to keep just a little bit to herself. All the girl did was observe, and see whether or not she could fit in. Her eyes were irresistibly drawn to the oldest Titan, who was the one that the least amount of people looked at, according to the papers and tabloids. Terra had snatched one up during her first week and was at first sent into hysterical laughter about the crazy rumors that were flying around about the team. Most of them centered around relationships, and any combination of Starfire, Robin, Raven and Beast Boy that they could come up with.

But no Cyborg. They couldn't really find much to say about him, so they ignored him. It made her angry and grateful at the same time, because she couldn't bear to see her wonderful teammate degraded by their false words. He had done nothing to deserve it, and the metal man got enough from those people who called him a 'freak' behind his back for the machines that saved his life. Terra cut up the tabloid and threw it away. She never picked another one up again.

He was sensitive and soft, but loud and outgoing when need be. He was the perfect mediator for the rest of them, old enough to take care of them, but young enough to have fun with them. He genuinely worried for all of their safety, and he watched out for them as best he could, still managing to protect himself even as his attention was scattered in five different directions. He was quite admirable, and Terra couldn't help but smile every time she saw him. He had that effect on her.

There were things that she noticed about him. One day, Terra had stumbled in on the boy sitting on the floor alone playing with Silkie, and using that baby voice that one used when talking to pets. He was tickling the worm's belly and laughing when it made strange noises that she supposed were meant to be its sort of contented purring. Terra peeked around the door with wide eyes and soft rustles, standing there and watching for minutes. It fascinated her, and she didn't leave until she heard steel toed boots clunking down the hallway.

Sometime later, Terra had been on the roof, bumping the volleyball by herself as the others had a movie marathon as they did every Friday night. They had invited her of course, but sci-fi just wasn't her type of flick. After assuring them all that she was okay, and telling Beast Boy that he should stay and watch if he really wanted to (what was up with him? It was like he was following her everywhere—it was weird), she headed up to the roof and grabbed a volleyball, practicing her skills so that next time they played she wouldn't want to dive off of the tower into the ocean bellow to hide from the shame.

All of a sudden there was another pair of arms playing with her, bumping and setting back and forth. Eventually, the two began to play over the net, and Cyborg taught her how to spike it, and get enough height to do so without hitting the net. She was nowhere near as good as he was, but she was definitely improving. It had been one of the most fun evenings of Terra's life. And when later, while they were drinking water, she had asked him why he hadn't stayed to watch the movies, he had smiled and told her that none of the Titans were ever meant to be alone.

Cheesy, yes, but at that moment, it warmed her from the inside, and she kept those words close to her heart.

The next week, they had defeated the Hive Five in a long battle that had consisted of the five villainous teens using a new weapon to create some sort of force fields around the Titans so they couldn't move. Terra had become so exasperated by this that she ripped up a huge chunk of the street and bashed it through the shields, pinning all five of the Hive to the wall at the same time. It had been easy to turn them over to the Jump City police after that. Beast Boy had suggested that they go home for a board game in celebration, and most quickly agreed. Cyborg, however, grabbed Terra's shoulder to prevent her from following them back into the car and tossed the keys to Robin, telling them that they would catch up with them later.

Throwing quizzical looks at Cyborg, Terra had walked with him down the street in silence. He seemed to be quite pensive and she didn't want to break his silence, so they simply strolled away together, oblivious to the thankful expressions being cast their way by the citizens who had been caught in the middle of their fight.

The two of them entered a café that regularly gave them free food for saving their city. They sat down at a booth and began to talk about the battle they had just had. Terra was bewildered, but she followed his lead, and soon they were deeply engaged in a conversation about what had just happened, and how everyone had done. Cyborg was praising her profusely; it had been her first big save, and she was quite proud of it, actually. The others had congratulated her as well, but not like this. The older teen ordered a large sundae for her, and grinned at her confused look. "What, surprised that someone is proud of you?" She didn't know.

While she was eating, Cyborg also informed Terra about some mistakes that she had made that he had noticed during the battle. He specifically told her what went wrong, and then they went about attempting to formulate plans on how they could prevent it from happening again. It was quite enjoyable. Cyborg knew how to balance the criticism and the praise so that she didn't get a big head, but she wasn't completely crushed by all the critiques. They returned to the tower long after the other four had finished their board game.

A few days after that the all of them except Cyborg were sitting in the control room, just lounging around on a lazy Saturday. Terra was painting her nails with Starfire and Raven. They had convinced the latter by assuring her that she could do a black, blue and purple pattern. Starfire was using a soft red color that matched her hair, and Terra was going for her usual crazy mix; greens, sparkly silver, and confetti glitter. They were chatting as their toes dried, comparing paint jobs when Cyborg came into the room, having just finished up fixing the T-car. He leaned down to talk with Raven quietly, telling her that he didn't want to interrupt their 'girl time' to have her help him. He gave her a very small smile, and he patted her on the back, which was surprising, knowing Raven's dislike of physical contact.

He then moved over to Starfire, patting her on the head, as she was adding the finishing touches to her nails, and finished with Terra. She smiled up at him and he grinned back. Suddenly she was in the air and his arms were around her, hugging her tightly. "Hello!" he called brightly at her.

Terra found that her arms were reaching as far around him as they could, and she was hugging him back as hard as she could, a bright twinkle in her blue eyes. "Hello yourself!" she giggled, swinging her legs back and forth and marveling at the hero's strength.

It was the first time he had ever hugged her, and she hadn't been expecting it at all. The way he seemed to always know what she was thinking, and how it never stopped him from doing what he wanted anyways. As their arms stayed wrapped around each other Terra smiled and rested her head on his shoulder before grinning and flicking him in the head. Cyborg grunted with surprise, then chuckled as he flicked her back, easily using his remaining arm to keep holding her up.

And that was when Terra decided that Cyborg was the least mechanical of them all.


End file.
